Recession & Employment

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Recession & Employment

The global economic crisis hit migrants and their financial well-being particularly hard, in some countries opening a wider gap in employment rates between foreign-born and native-born workers. The research offered here examines how immigrants fare in changing labor markets, the effects of the most severe economic crisis in decades on immigrant employment and migration patterns, and policymaking as it relates to adjusting immigration levels and opening or narrowing labor markets for foreign-born workers.

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This Transatlantic Council Statement examines both the challenge and opportunity for governments, in an era of skepticism about migration, to create a new definition of “we” based on a more inclusive idea of national identity and belonging, and to convince the broader society that investing in integration is an investment in shared futures.

The two sides of the debate on immigration and integration in Europe share an underlying assumption that the problem is cultural, while disagreeing on whether it is the result of too much or too little respect for cultural differences. This report contends that both get the issue wrong, calling attention to the inability of policies to ensure immigrants acquire and retain work.

A discussion on the gains that young adult immigrants or the U.S.-born children of immigrants have made in education and employment, with speakers: Michael Fix, Jeanne Batalova, Andrew P. Kelly, Raul Gonzalez, and Margie McHugh.

The story of immigrant integration in the United States has historically been one of generational progress, with the gains for second-generation Hispanic women particularly impressive, as this report reveals. It profiles first- and second-generation young adults ages 16 to 26, examining this diverse population's education and career pathways.

The United States has historically offered unparalleled economic opportunity to successive generations of immigrants and their children, poised to play an increasing role in the U.S. economy. But the lasting impact of job loss and slower growth over the next decade will translate into fewer opportunities for workers—and immigrants may prove the most vulnerable.

This Migration Policy Institute event was held to discuss the release of MPI'sbook, Migration and the Great Recession: The Transatlantic Experience, which reviews how the financial and economic crisis of the late 2000s marked a sudden and dramatic interruption in international migration trends.

Over the past half century, migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States has been driven in part by regional demographic and human-capital trends. As the U.S. labor force became better educated, fewer native workers accepted certain low-skilled jobs. This report offers a look at the economic changes that have coincided with a Mexican and Central American population boom.